Laboratorians and other healthcare professionals continue to look to the business world for solutions to hospital's operational challenges
Applying business operations principles to hospital lab operations can help you reduce healthcare costs and avoid preventable medical errors
Transitioning to a patient-centric model of operations requires the skillful application of proven business solutions to hospital operations principles of high efficiency health care
Several years ago, a professor was teaching a course on supply chain management at a top US business school. On the first day of class, he asked his students to introduce themselves and talk a little about what they did for a living. As the introductions proceeded, the professor heard something that struck him as remarkable. Among the usual smattering of procurement managers, inventory control specialists, and production supervisors was a gentleman who identified himself as a hospital emergency room physician. The professor held up his hand and paused the introductions. “Wait a minute,” he said, pointing to the physician. “I think I can figure out why everyone else is taking this course. But what are you doing here?”
That professor was Wally Hopp, PhD, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. The answer the physician gave him was one Dr. Hopp began to hear again and again as an increasing number of healthcare professionals started showing up in his classes. All were looking outside of medicine for solutions to help them manage the complexity of their hospital operations. They ranged from physicians struggling to dissolve dangerous bottlenecks in the ER to hematologists searching for ways to prioritize daily blood draws for more seamless patient handoffs.
These healthcare professionals had been talking to people in various fields, including operators of nuclear plants, air traffic controllers, and auto industry executives–all searching for actionable solutions. However, the leap from these industries to healthcare was too great. They weren't getting the answers they needed. Dr. Hopp resolved to do something promoting principles of high-efficiency health care.
In partnership with Bill Lovejoy, PhD, Raymond T. Perring Family Professor of Business Administration at the Ross School of Business, Dr. Hopp endeavored to help these healthcare professionals. The 2 leading operations management experts began applying business principles to hospital's operational challenges. This led to high efficiency health improvements in ERs, pathology labs, radiology departments, and other areas. It was a huge success, but Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy wanted to lend their expertise to many more institutions. To do so, they needed to package their knowledge into a systematic framework that anyone could access.
So they wrote a book.
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research;
Herrick Professor of Business, Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
So we wrote the book with close cooperation from people like Dr. Myers and several other leaders in our hospital system here. And what we hope we did is provide a well-structured perspective on what drives performance in hospitals. We chose to focus on hospitals in particular on the point at which hands meet patients – the direct delivery of care to patients. We didn't focus on the policy part of what was going on. We focused on the actual delivery of healthcare.
As they worked on their book, Hospital Operations: Principles of High Efficiency Health Care, Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy asked themselves if they even had any business writing about hospital operations, given their backgrounds. The answer they came to was “yes.” Because while health care and business are different in many respects, they share a common purpose: creating greater social value. As Dr. Lovejoy explains: “Other people see business as being connected to a sometimes unsavory pursuit of profits only. Most people don't understand that monetary transfers are just incidental to the theory of business. It's all about creating social value.”
Hospital labs can learn a lot from the hyper-competitive world of business. Under constant pressure to increase efficiencies in a free market, industries must innovate to survive. The processes they develop under such conditions may not arise naturally in the comparatively insulated world of health care—but can be extremely beneficial there to help optimize flows.
Applying business principles to hospital operations principles can help leaders when addressing issues ranging from efficiencies to hospital performance, and high costs. Use the sliders on the examples below to learn more about these hospital operations principles of high efficiency health care.
Reference: 1. Hopp W, Lovejoy W. Hospital Operations: Principles of High Efficiency Health Care. Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press; 2013.
Healthcare is ripe for the strategic application of business principles to hospital's operational challenges. One reason, according to Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy, is that healthcare is transitioning from a siloed industrial phase to an integrated, customer-centric one. It is an evolution most businesses have already gone through.
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research;
Herrick Professor of Business, Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy detail 3 business principles that can be applied to hospital operations resulting in high efficiency health care. Read through the following descriptions, and consider how you might apply these principles in your lab.
As hospital laboratorians, you're constantly managing the different hospital flows: the flow of specimens through the lab; the flow of reports back out to physicians, and the flow of patients themselves. All of these hospital flows are governed by physics. When properly understood, physics can be managed to deliver more high-efficiency health and quality care.
Dr. Jeff Myers, Director of Anatomic Pathology and MLabs and Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs and Quality at the University of Michigan, collaborated on Hospital Operations Principles. He stresses the importance of laboratorians adhering to a fundamental business axiom: bring value to your customer—as defined by your customer, not you. Which, in the case of hospital labs, is the patient.
Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs & Quality; Director, MLabs
University of Michigan Health System
A principle that Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy have been working on passionately is the notion of creating positive lean. What this means is that an organization makes a conscious effort to create a work culture that is both efficient and motivational. Instead of advancing efficiencies at the cost of employee morale, those forces actually facilitate greater engagement under a positive lean model.
Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research;
Herrick Professor of Business, Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
On the business side of things, Dr. Hopp and Dr. Lovejoy believe there are many more principles from industry that can be applied to improving hospital operations. On the clinical side, Dr. Myers has seen the application of business principles in action and is a firm believer in the positive difference that can be made in decreasing lab errors and improving hospital performance. He appeals to all of us to embrace these principles of high efficiency as a means of overcoming today's hospital's operational challenges. "While business may have a somewhat negative connotation in medicine, I think we have to evolve past that and understand that there are principles of high efficiency— many of which were unknown to me until we got to work together on the book—that when appropriately applied solve a lot of these problems."
